Team

Well, as everyone knows, it got pretty smokey and the ashfall was pretty intense with the Miramar arm of the Cedar (Ramona) fire burning to about a mile of where we were dilligently working on building the yak. The homes west of us were evacuated, but there was nothing else to do but work on the yak and drink beer, taking breaks to look over the ridge and down on the fireline. Dave, being a hyper A personality, was all for cranking away and we did make a lot of progress.
All panels and components were cut from the scarfed plywood panels, being careful to cut on the line. The broken pannel that we re-worked and reglued was cut out. All the stitch holes were drilled using a 0.040 drill (#60) for the 24 gauge steel wire we will use.
We tried something different for this kayak by tying the outside paired panels together with wire for a sanding of the edges such that they will be matched and faired.
Finally, we looked at a piece with a joint that wasn't smooth and flat and admitted to each other that we weren't in the least happy with it. So, we put our heads together and figured out that we can glue a band of matched plywood okoume face sheet into a matched edge and then sand it fair. The idea is to have a thin line showing where the joint is. So, tonight was a fevered stint to "harvest" a perfect match and work the offending kayak panel joint so that it will allow a seamless joining. Dave is a perfectionist and that suits me just fine. This kayak must be perfect or neither of us will be happy. So with that, another productive day, or 7th day at the kayak or 5th mostly full day at building the actual kayak.
Tomorrow is a trip to get another sheet of okoume and cut the components out for the hatches. Tpmorrow won't be a complete day in that I have a little consulting gig on my very near horizon. Of course, the surf's up, too and the water's warm. Figures.